Glad to see this puzzle have some self-awareness and stop at 3 SEMI rebuses. One more and it would’ve been two full of itself. cc: emu handler
@Steven Love this, but you’re at risk of being called a two-timing, double-dealing half wit!
@Steven The aha moment came on the second reading of your comment. Good one! (I knew I was missing something when I saw 69 had recommended it.)
"Should I stop with my moon puns?" "No! Gibbous more!" (I'll think of another one lunar or later.)
@Mike Moon puns peaked with Wanes' World. The film where Mike Myers waxed nonsensically, like a lunartic.
@Mike I thought you had only just star ted. ✨ ✨ ✨ 🌙 ✨ ✨ ✨ ✨
Mike, No more needed, I’m still howling at your first one. (Not to be waning on your parade, or anything.)
Definitely a lightweight rebus - a good example for the uninitiated.
Will wonders never cease? A rebus on Wednesday and not a single complaint from the drama department. (So far.) Congratulations, Kareem, you found the sweet spot! Delightful puzzle, fun for solvers of all levels. Sam, we don’t say it enough: You are a gem! Great column today.
@M. Biggen People enjoy what they enjoy and there is no drama involved. I hate the rebus, so here's your "drama" for the day.
@M. Biggen The bit about "forcing rebus-infested puzzles down my throat" from was pretty dramatic. Poor guy... strapped to a chair, screaming, as the leering puzzle constructor approaches, a foul, wriggling rebus puzzle gripped in one gloved fist...
I liked the “things that fly through the air” mini-theme of AIRACE, RAF, CRUISE MISSILES, GEESE, and EAGLE. I liked another mini-theme, this one with a revealer – ARTS – that included three vocal performers, a painter, a writer, and two comic actors. I liked seeing FINAL in a puzzle whose theme is SEMI. I liked the theme echo in crossing answers MISERS and SLIMES, which both contain the letters of SEMI. But what I liked most of all was the message that undercut the entire puzzle: I Want You To Succeed. This was accomplished through a plethora of footholds, which gave the solver a decent chance to see the rebus and figure out what it was. Wednesday is the perfect day for making rebuses simple and do-able, so that the solver can face the more difficult ones that come on Thursdays, with some experience and success at it. Kareem, in your four NYT puzzles you’ve shown originality (themes which have never been done before in all four), imagination (as in your Wormhole puzzle of 7/18/24), and moxie (as in your puzzle in which all 14 three-letter answers were the word SET). Thank you for today’s fun and I am uber-eager to see what you come up with next!
Upon reading this over, I'd like to replace "undercut" with "permeated". "Undercut" means to weaken, which is contrary to what I was trying to say, that that wonderful message was under the surface of the entire puzzle. I'm sorry for any confusion my poor choice of word caused! Et tu, emu.
So many folks seem to complain about rebuses being used in the puzzle, mostly we think, because they add a perceived level of difficulty for folks who may already believe they tip-toeing into the deep water of a Thursday puzzle. Our strategy for solving a puzzle with rebuses; First, when you believe there is a sensible answer staring you in the face, but it just won't fit, concentrate on the fill crossing that answer, see if sections of that 'obvious' answer materialize. If that doesn't work, don't hesitate to move on to another section of the puzzle, but be prepared to find another answer that doesn't quite fit. After we have a section of an answer that seems right, it's time to start looking for letter sequences that make any kind of sense when isolated into one square. This puzzle identified the rebus squares up front by circling them for us. To play fair this doesn't always mean they will be rebuses, but the constructor clearly wants us to wonder why they would be circled. Then some smooth Wednesday fill to provide further clues that your crossword intuition was correct. Hopefully this will shine more light on multi-dimensional crosswords, so folks can enjoy a satisfying 'aha'! moment instead of darkly griping about the editors. Hats off to Kareem and the editors for an educational Wednesday!
@M&M - please add one layer: since the rebus puzzles always accept the initial letter as sufficient: Once you suspect a rebus is involved, erase one square that you believe is not at all involved in the rebus but you are sure is correct. Keep that square empty until you are satisfied that the rest of the puzzle is correct. Fill it in last. If you are correct, the whole puzzle will resolve to satisfaction.
@M&M This is a wonderful strategy!
@M&M I think chalking up complaints as a skill issue is an unfair assumption to make. Sometimes people just don't find things interesting or enjoyable, it doesn't mean they're bad at it. That line of thinking is really off-putting and a reason why people choose to lurk instead of interacting with the community. Doesn't feel great when you don't like something and you're told it's because you're not a good enough solver. FWIW, I thought this was a pretty easy puzzle, still don't enjoy rebus though.
A Wednesday rebus!!?? Love it. Your mileage may vary.
Crossword lovers have been treated to some really clever THEMES lately! And a good reminder to never be cloSE-MInded. A rebus can pop-up any day of the week. Nicely done, Kareem.
This was light and clever and cute. Rebus was easy, appropriate for Wednesday.
@Spelling Marauder Yes, I solved the first one and just filled in the other two, went very fast for a Wednesday but the nerve of putting in a rapper name that isn’t NAS or LIL, had to work around that and others out of my wheelhouse.
I'm not too good at Wednesday puzzles, but I finally got this one. I'm amazed I finally figured out a rebus puzzle! The semicircle clue was brilliant. I like the box for crackers too. Keep up the great work Thank you. David Gropper, Danbury CT
I've just subscribed to the NYT and started doing the crosswords. I've seen the rebus button before but had no idea what it did.. I thought the funhousemirror answer missing some letters was an imitation of a wonky mirror cutting some of the letters out of view.. thank God I found this article!!
@Asher Unfortunately, in order not to spoil the party for the rest of us, first-time rebusers have to go through that experience just the once. Some of them are very upset to learn you can put more than one letter in a box. But hopefully, they—and you—will grow to enjoy rebus puzzles, They are a cut above the average puzzle.
Nice puzzle! I may be in the minority but I enjoy rebuses, and in any event the difficulty level seemed appropriate for a Wednesday.
@GRS I don’t think the people who hate rebuses outnumber those who enjoy them. It’s just that the first group is so vocal.
Kareem 👋🏾! Look at you, making a Wednesday rebus that was enjoyable. When I saw RALLYCAR it made me miss my Subaru WRX, one of three cars I sold before moving to Europe. The young fellas used to say, “Wow, you’re cool!” and want to race me. It had such great acceleration, an awesome sunroof and a great aftermarket sound system 🎶 . Good times! NURSEMIDWIFE brought to mind that many of the women of my family had a long tradition of being MIDladies, as they were called. They were needed because due to segregation in the south, the pregnant women in my community were not allowed to give birth in the hospitals. It skipped a generation, but there’s now an over representation of RNs, Nurse Practitioners, Veterinary Nurses, and LPNs among the younger generation of my extended family. Enjoyable Wednesday!
@Pani Korunova Indeed, a blue Scooby was the first RALLY CAR to come to mind, after countless hours of playing Colin McRae Rally.
As a nurse-midwife, I was delighted by this!
@Nancy Niemczyk is that the industry term used? I've only ever heard mid wife.
Rebuses AND pop culture references? Hoo boy. I’m going to get out of here before all the yelling begins. But you won’t hear any from me, because I thoroughly enjoyed that. It was a pretty quick solve for a Wednesday, but had just enough bite to keep my teeth sharp. Nice job!
Didn’t expect to be thinking about Ayn Rand, cruise missiles, and catholic royalty on a Wednesday morning, but here we are.
A rebus puzzle that I didn't see was a rebus puzzle until the revealer, when I saw the THEMES that were AT STAKE, and it took only HOFFA minute or so (well, a little more than that) to fill in the FINAL ANSWERs. Thank you, Kareem Ayas, for a puzzle that could serve as an introduction to rebuses and how to spot them. What could have been AGONY was great fun.
A fun Wednesday. Typical slow start for me, but tumbling to the trick was a big turning point and I actually ended up a bit under my Wednesday average. And... speaking of turning points - rather amazing coincidental puzzle find today. Did a search for NURSEMIDWIFE and the only previous appearance was in a Monday puzzle from December 1, 2008 by Eric J. Platt. In that one the reveal clue and answer was: "Change abruptly, or what the insides of 17-, 27- and 43-Across do? :" TURNONADIME And the answers to the three referenced theme answers (I'm highlighting the trick): bettEMIDdler nursEMIDwife sEMIDetached I'm done. ..
Love the Wednesday rebus However Crossing Duchamp, with foreign policy grp., with an antelope that would stump Attenborough And, cross said antelope with a GM emergency service That's a huge spider web Natick (No matter what Barry says!)
@Bill in Yokohama I didn't know the artist, but ELAND is a common crossword entry, as well as being a fairly commonly seen antelope with distinctive horns. I've never used ONSTAR, but despite my disinterest I have heard it referenced on multiple occasions and in different ways... not much recently, I concede. I did have trouble with a few other name crosses that I'm sure others found easy, so I think it's more of a personal experience thing.
@Bill in Yokohama - never been to the zoo? I’m amazed at the eland negativity today. Attenborough would not be stumped by an eland, a gnu, a gazelle, an ibex, … nor should any steady crossworder! Oh, deer!
Oh I see what you did there! And on a Wednesday, no less. Once I understood the trick, I wanted more circles to fill in.
As a still-early-week-solver, solving this puzzle makes me think I may have a chance tomorrow! Great puzzle!
This one did not have me running around in circles or SEMIcircles, but the SEMI rebus was well done. I thought the cross of HISEMINENCE and FUNHOUSEMIRROR was impressive. I was also pleased that I got UZI right off the bat, as I don’t have vast knowledge of rap or hip hop names.
Loved this rebus! This is the first time I solved a rebus without having clues beforehand (and knowing there was a rebus in the first place). YoSEMIte Sam made it click for me, because I was sure that should be the answer. Very enjoyable Wednesday crossword. Thanks.
This puzzle was a delight. I have been solving the NYT crossword regularly for about a year now. I started out a firm rebus hater and now I'm a rebus tolerater. But this one I loved. It was fun and whimsical and very enjoyable. I think this might represent rebus turning point!
@Laura Kay Rebuses are devious that way. Welcome to the dark side.
Fun and breezy for a Wednesday. Loved the ATARI clue. Always up for a rebus.
I love rebuses and enjoyed this relatively gentle puzzle, especially after last week’s AGONY!
Brilliant use of the rebus! Applause and great job Kareem
A rebus on a Wednesday!! When I started solving four and a half years ago, I used to find rebus puzzles impossible without the use of autocheck. Now they’re my favorites — the most satisfying type of puzzle! Thanks to the creator for an extra dose of rebus fun in the middle of the week!
For once, I figured out the rebus immediately. Knew it was semi. The trick was hi(semi)nence which eminence by itself works and fits without the his but once, pretty quickly, I realized why semi went in I went to the remaining circles and filled them in with semi. A rarity for me. I truly appreciated the revealer utilizing the circle as well as the rebus. Not something seen very often
Holy Jimmy HOFFA! Anything but Kardashian boyfriends. A fun little morsel of a Wednesday puzzle that I wish could have lasted longer, since I'll be up late watching the Tiafoe match.
@Vaer Anyone else have a flashback to The Grifters after seeing the photo Sam posted? Great movie.
Personal best for me and I’m sure it will be the case for many others. A totally delightful puzzle, I’d say. I’m sure there will be someone to pop in with a complaint but for now I’m loving the positivity of we happy few.
Proud I got this one in 15min and figure out the theme.
I came to the comments expecting a barrage of gripes because rebus on Wednesday—so happy to see others felt as I did—just plain fun. Great Wednesday level. Pure luck that I didn’t have to run the vowels on Odom/Jonas, guessed right, but I wish there weren’t crosses like that. And yes I know I live under a rock. But this is one of my more favorite recent puzzles.
I was pondering some of the expressed wishes that rebus haters could know up-front if a puzzle has such a feature. The idea mentioned below by Aditya had occurred to me - a “click here to learn if this puzzle has a rebus” do-dad (maybe print that info on a back-ish page, for print customers?). But why stop there? Select below what you wish to reveal about today’s crossword puzzle prior to solving: - [ ] Rebus - yes or no. - [ ] Numbers or special characters required? - [ ] Actual mathematical calculations required? - [ ] Around the corner, off the page, or bendy answers? - [ ] Answers that are gibberish due to required rearrangements? - [ ] Number of proper nouns, overall. - [ ] Number of opera clues. - [ ] Number of rap artist clues. - [ ] Number of sports clues. - [ ] Number of Latin clues or answers. - [ ] Number of non-English living language clues or answers. - [ ] Number of words that have been complained about before in the comments, since 2015 only. - [ ] Are bodily functions or secretions mentioned? If so, how many? - [ ] Number of “alternate” spellings that would bother most people. - [ ] Day this puzzle should actually have run, as determined by NYT CrosswordBot©️ - [ ] Cutsieness and Gimmickiness levels of theme, as determined by NYT CrosswordBot©️ - [ ] Any semordnilaps ;-) ? - [ ] Anything else I might not like.
@JohnWM You jest but if there was a significant demand for any of those other things I'd support any added features that benefit them, even if I personally have no use for it or understand the need for it
I'm also a bit disappointed that my other idea about a crossword where every cell is a rebus so rebus-ophiles can get it out of their system and the rest of us know it's a rebus crossword from the very first clue and that we should find better things to do with our time. Seemed like a win-win
That was a zippy Wednesday. The rebus fell almost instantly—nearly a personal record. I reckon it’s in my top three. I had to battle through the weekend puzzles in a fog of good food and drink during a quick trip out of town for a friend’s 40th. Needless to say, my streak was toppled by those two barn burners. So, I guess I don’t mind a light Wednesday after that… but then again, now that the puzzle is over, I’d much rather still be solving. So, given the choice between unsolvably hard (for me) and too easy, I’ll take too hard *any day of the week*. Either way, it was a fun puzzle this evening. Thanks, Kareem Ayas!
Great intro rebus for new solvers. Cute theme and no yucky fill. Easy for a Wednesday? Sure, but it was a blast :)
Uh oh. Seems like we might be suffering from rebus-creep. ROSEMILK crossing NURSEMIDWIFE suggests to me that this was a difficult theme to pull off. Kudos to our constructor; this was an interesting puzzle.
Yay! a rebus puzzle on Wednesday. A nice, gentle, easy, welcoming rebus. Okay, fam, we need some one to construct a puzzle where the rebus word is EMU.
Yeah for Yosemite Sam!! Couldn't have done it without him.
My feelings when I finish a puzzle with a rebus in it: Remarkably Enjoyable Bringer of Unparalleled Satisfaction My feelings after reading the comments of a puzzle that had the audacity to include rebus: Remarkably Enjoyable Bringer of Unfortunate Strife Fun puzzle! And a good reminder that a rebus can pop up any day. I also like the constructor's idea for fill in the circle. UZI came easily once crossings made me remove Nas.... And then UZI came very, very easily in the archived puzzle that I did today. Perhaps now I'll remember both names.
This was a very smooth solve. The constructor did a very good job of making it so that clues whose answers were pop culture trivia could be filled in with crosses without requiring (at least of me) a single lookup: I’m almost certain not to know any Kardashian-adjacent name, but no problem for me here; same for Lil UZI Vert (maybe I’ll even look them up and see if I like their music). I’m ashamed I didn’t even recall the correct spelling for Tina FEY, despite loving “30 Rock,” but still no problems. Wednesdays are, of course, meant to be fairly easy, but this seemed like a relatively large volume of obscure answers that had the potential to be naticks but never actually were. My only quibble is that I would never, personally, describe SERRANOS as “hot,” but they do objectively have a non-zero amount of capsaicin, so I can’t truly object.
@Nick Fey is from near Philadelphia so I locked in her name spelling early on. I'm NOT ashamed that I always have trouble with Susan Dey (aka Laurie Partridge). "Hot" peppers in US restaurants - and "spicy" foods in general - are infamously not hot. If you ask for hot peppers in a restaurant, they're often not-hot peppers that have been brined
@Nick It must be a cultural thing. A lot of people consider jalapeno peppers as hot, and serranos are 3 to 4 times hotter than that on the scoville scale. Certainly there are much hotter peppers around (carolina reaper, ghost, scotch bonnet), but that doesn't preclude people from considering the serrano a hot pepper.
I'd much rather have an easy rebus on Wednesday than anything that requires numerical calculation on any day. So, well done?
Worked away at this till the "aha!" moment. Once 63A was filled in, it all became clear. The rebuses (rebi? reboids?) were reasonable -- only three of them, and they read the same across and down. No lookups! The Beatles and Tina FEY are in my comfort zone, as are MARCEL Duchamp and the ELAND. The clue for 11D suggested "midwife", so the answer was not a huge stretch (so to speak). Nice Wednesday puzzle -- a challenge, but not insanely difficult.
Thank you Kareem. For me, to have a rebus puzzle on Wednesday is a bonus. It was an easy puzzle and the theme was literally spelled out and position indicated. I would suggest if you flail at Rebi then this would be a good one to cut one’s teeth on. Ironically I hesitated on “Blue, in Spanish” The clue just seemed too simple and direct to be Azul but I could’t make Triste or any synonyms for sad fit. Anyway, crosses quickly confirmed the answer. Perhaps Wednesday is too soon for Sad in Salamanca or Picasso Period.
I would love to see the abandon-rate for puzzles that use rebus versus those that don't.
@Craig Market closed in the red today. Now I'm not saying that putting a rebus in the daily crossword is necessarily to blame but it does make you wonder
When I did my first pass and right at the start encountered the Kardashian boyfriend and the rapper, I thought: Meh, it's one of those arcane trivia puzzles, I'm toast! But in the end it was quite pleasant, and I got the unknown names from crosses. I did lookup ONSTAR though. I don't know much about current US cars, and in Europe ONSTAR was apparently a feature of Opel cars, which I was never interested in because of their poor quality and performance (and since Opel was taken over by the French, GM's OnStar is no longer offered, anyway, as Google told me).
Fun entry level rebus puzzle, nicely excecuted. [Boxes for crackers?] the absolute favorite but must confess that my first thought was of the slur for Southern whites. That sparked a dive into the etymology of the word which, surprisingly, goes back to Shakespearean times. Very much like the idea of "Phil in the circles" rebus puzzle. Wonder if it got published elsewhere? Many thanks.
@John Carson Yes I really liked that idea, as well --- and fill in the circles is what we used to have to do on standardized tests -- and could be clued as some version of that. But maybe one doesn't fill in circles on tests anymore (I have no idea), which is why it's no longer "idiomatic" enough for a puzzle today.
@John Carson Yes, "fill in the circles" sounded so clever. How do crossword constructors handle a rejection after all that work?! It's beyond me
Marvelous puzzle. I love a rebus so I was happy to have one on a Wednesday. I agree with other commenters that today’s rebus is a good way to learn and get comfortable with them. Thanks for the fun, Kareem!
NE corner: foreign language words and rap artist names should not be crossed. Just my opinion, but dang.
@Ken I found that section difficult as well. Dang is right.
@Francis It sounds like you’re far from the only ones who struggled with that corner, but I’m guessing it’s extra tough for midwesterners (outside Pilsen) — most Californios know their primary colors in Spanish, and I’m guessing so do the majority of Tejanos, Floridianos y Nuyoricans. I’m sure your French is ‘Superior’ though!